Combination packaging and storage unit



Sept. 8, 1970 s. D. CHALPIN 3,527,346

COMBINATION PACKAGING AND STORAGE UNIT Filed Feb. 13, 1969 FIGS INVENTOR. .SIMOIV 0. ChAl-P/A/ 14 "FHA 5X5 United States Patent 3,527,346 COMBINATION PACKAGING AND STORAGE UNIT Simon D. Chalpin, 1310 Boston Post Road, Larchmont, N.Y. 10538 Filed Feb. 13, 1969, Ser. No. 798,895 Int. Cl. B65d 25/22, 75/36 US. Cl. 206-78 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to the packaging of items, and in particular, to a package enclosure which can be used as a protective shipping container by the manufacturer, as a display device by the retailer and converted by the consumer into a separate and distinct package enclosure which may be used as a storage means for the particular item of manufacture.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the creation of a packaging enclosure which can be utilized both to package and to display for resale an item of manufacture. In addition, the consumer is able to convert the original packaging enclosure into a storage enclosure which he can then utilize to store the purchased article of manufacture.

Although prior packaging enclosures have been utilized to act as both a display device and/or a packaging device, none have had the additional capability of being able to be converted into a new packaging enclosure, separate and distinct from the original package enclosure and capable of acting as a storage enclosure for the originally packaged item.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present packaging device is directed to a package enclosure created by the application of a transparent plastic blister pack to a sheet of packaging material. The blister pack contains an article of manufacture, as for example, a magnetic tape cartridge. In this initial configuration, the package enclosure provides a package which not only acts as a protective enclosure during shipping, but it may also be used as a self advertising promotional display of such dimensions as to discourage shop lifting. By the placing of perforations onto the sheet of packaging material, as depicted in FIG. 2, a new blank for forming part of a new packaging enclosure is defined. By tearing along the perforations and separating the blister pack from the newly shaped sheet of packaging material, the two halves of a packaging enclosure are created. The newly shaped sheet of packaging material is scored parallel to its edges and between the points which will defiine the four corners of the newly created package half made from the sheet of packaging material. By folding along the scored lines, a container is created having a bottom and four side walls. The blister pack becomes the top to the newly created container fitting over the side walls thus resulting in the creation of a new storage container that has been fashioned from the original packaging elements.

It is an object of this invention to create a packaging enclosure that can be used as a display device without altering the original packaging enclosure.

Another object of this invention is the creation of a packaging enclosure for small items of manufacture that will make the theft of the packaged item difficult.

The final object of this invention is the creation of a packaging enclosure from which a new and different enclosure structure can be fashioned, the purpose of the new structure being to create a convenient means by which the packaged item can be stored.

3,527,346 Patented Sept. 8, 1970 ice BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the preferred embodiment of this invention, a blank 1 has affixed to it a blister pack 2. A zone of weakness, such as perforations, is formed in blank 1 along lines 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Scored lines 12, 13, 14 and 15 are made upon blank 1 as indicated in FIG. 3. A hole 16 is made in blank 1 to permit the package enclosure to be htmg as a display.

Blank 1 may be made of any sheet material such as cardboard. The shape of blank 1 may take on any desired dimensions, the only governing factors being the size of the item to be packaged, the amount of sheet material of the package enclosure to be used for advertising and the overall desired size of the package enclosure so as to make theft of the package difiicult. In one envisaged application, namely, a package enclosure for a magnetic.

tape cartridge, the dimensions of rectangular blank 1 would be of the order of twelve inches by six inches (FIG. 2). The portion of blank material between perforated lines 3 and hole 16 defines an area upon which advertising may be placed, and in the case of a tape cartridge, the advertising could be of the form of the album title of the tape cartridge, the particular songs in the album and possibly the vocalists picture.

A transparent thermo-plastic wrapping material, generally referred to as a blister pack, is preshaped to accommodate a particular item to be packaged. This preshaped blister pack 2 has a surface 17 and four sides 18, 19, 20 and 21. Blister pack 2 is thermally aflixed in a manner well known in the packaging art to blank 1 adjacent to scored lines 12, 13, 14 and 15. Once blister pack 2 is thermally alfixed to blank 1 with the item of manufacture contained therein, a protective packaging enclosure is created.

Blank 1 has perforations made in it along lines 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 as shown in FIG. 2. The perforations are located so as to define a blank of sheet material which can be created out of the original blank 1 (FIG. 3). By folding along scored lines 12, 13, 14 and 15, a portion of an enclosure is created, namely, a bottom 22 and four side walls 23, 24, 25 and 26 (FIG. 4). This bottom half 22 of the new enclosure is sized so as to allow blister pack 17 to securely fit over it. To accomplish this fit, scored lines 12, 13, 14 and 15 are designed so as to be slightly less than their corresponding mating members on blister pack 2. When a consumer purchases the item of manufacture, he is able to tear along perforations 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. By separating blister pack 2 from the newly proportioned backing, and by folding the backing along scored lines 12, 13, 14 and 15, a storage enclosure is created in which the purchased article may be stored.

By varying the dimensions of perforated lines 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 any desired depth of storage enclosure may be achieved. The length of the above perforated lines is dependent upon the relative size relationship 3 between blister pack 2 and blank 1. By the proper determination of this relationship, the depth of the storage enclosure is determined.

I claim:

1. A package enclosure comprising:

(a) a blank sheet material;

(b) a transparent blister pack aflixed to said blank;

() scored lines placed on said sheet material adjacent to and contained within the area defined by where said blister pack is affixed to said blank; and

'(d) perforations placed in said sheet material so as to define a different configuration of sheet material from said original configuration of said sheet material which when separated from said original blank of sheet material and folded along said scored lines creates a mating member for said blister pack.

2. A package enclosure as described in claim 1 wherein said blank of sheet material is oblong.

3. A package enclosure as described in claim 2 wherein said transparent blister pack is square.

4. A package enclosure as described in claim 2 wherein said transparent blister pack is oblong.

5. A package enclosure as described in claim 2 wherein said blister pack is affixed to said rectangular blank such that three sides of said blister pack are located an equal distance in from three edges of said rectangular blank.

6. A package enclosure to be used as a shipping package, as a display package and from which a storage package may be fashioned comprising:

(a) a rectangular blank of sheet material;

(b) a rectangular transparent blister pack having a top surface and four sides affixed to said lblank along the sides of said pack positioned such that three of the sides of said blister pack are located an equal distance in from the edge of said blank;

(0) a line of perforations placed in said blank running throughot-u said blank on a line parallel to the fourth side of said blister pack and placed in said blank a distance away from said fourth side of said blister pack equal to the distance between any of the other three sides of said blister pack and the edge of said blank; 1

(d) scored lines placed on said sheet material adjacent to but within the area defined by where said blister pack is affixed to said blank; and

(e) perforations placed in said sheet material along lines defined by the extensions of said scored lines wherein said line extensions stop when they extend off of said blank or cross said line of perforations which runs parallel to the fourth side of said blister pack.

7. A package enclosure comprising:

(a) a support sheet;

(b) azone of weakness formed in said support and running transversely throughout said support to thereby define a first and a second area in said support;

(c) a blister pack having a top and side walls afiixed to said support and located substantially centrally on said first area;

(d) a first set of lines of weakness formed in said first area defining a slightly smaller area corresponding in outline to said blister pack; and

(e) a second set of lines of weakness formed in said first area of said support along lines that are extensions of said first set of lines of weakness with each pair of said first set of lines of weakness extending from the point where a pair of said first set of lines of weakness intersect each other and with each line of said pair terminating at the respective edge of said first area.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,251,565 8/1941 Forman 229-46 3,086,309 4/1963 Katz 20678 3,303,930 2/1967 Hyland 20678 3,346,108 10/1967 Wizelman 206-78 3,428,171 2/1969 Blish 20678 WILLIAM T. DIXSON, JR., Primary Examiner 

